This Week in Global Mobile | November 19, 2010
At times it's difficult to keep pace with the latest global mobile developments. I hope this selection of news stories from the past week will help you navigate the growing global network of connectivity:
- On Monday Google released a white paper discussing the various ways governments hamper trade by impeding the free flow of information on the Internet. Check out Sam's take here.
- Long-awaited proof that SMS messaging helps improve the lives of HIV patients emerged in a first-of-its-kind study based in East Africa by Canadian, American, and Kenyan scientists.
- While building their new constitution, Kenyan leaders proposed bills which establish media and communications bodies in recognition of ICT’s growing role in the country.
- On Monday the National Telecommunications and Information Administration released 115MHz of spectrum, the first of a series of installments meant to fulfill President Obama’s initiative to double the amount of commercial spectrum available by 2020.
- Global fixed broadband subscribers increased by 1.4% to 463 million between Q2 and Q3, reports ABI Research.
- 40 billion dollars were transferred in Africa last year over mobile money platforms, explained a Western Union exec in an interview discussing a new partnership with African mobile operator MTN.
- Facebook was blocked in Saudi Arabia for several hours over the weekend, reportedly because the site “doesn’t conform to the country’s conservative values.”
- Americans’ concerns over their privacy on social networking sites increased over the past year, Forrester Research reported last week.
- Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced a new messaging service which combines e-mail, SMS, and instant messenger using a comprehensive “@facebook.com” account.
- Just over two-thirds (65%) of Internet users world-wide have fallen victim to cybercrimes such as credit card fraud, according to the Norton Cybercrime Report.
- At this week’s Web 2.0 Summit, Google C.E.O. Eric Schmidt announced that future releases of Android will support Near Field Communications, a protocol which enables smart phones to communicate and exchange data with each other. BlackBerry’s maker RIM followed with a similar announcement the next day.
- Social networking sites will be more popular than voice and SMS communications by 2015, according to numbers by Airwide Solutions.
- Smart phone sales will outnumber those of personal and laptop computers by 2012, with more than 450 million units sold, reports Morgan Stanley.
- South Korea’s President Cheong Wa Dae opened the country’s first presidential Facebook account, a move aimed at “improving communication with tech-savvy younger generations.”
- After years of discussions, digital versions of The Beatles’s albums finally arrived on iTunes on Tuesday -- and it took less than 24 hours for all the albums to become best-sellers.
- Infodev awarded six grants to the winners of its Creating Sustainable Businesses context, which challenged applicants to use mobile social media to improve their economies.
- The U.K. commissioner for communications rejected the idea of instituting net neutrality rules on the country’s Internet service providers.
- On Wednesday the Urgent Communications Journal unveiled a new emergency broadcast system which uses mobile technologies such as SMS to deliver urgent news to the public.